As wireless network data rates improve using third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), and WiFi technologies, more and more bandwidth-intensive applications are being developed. A 4G wireless network is an all Internet protocol (IP) wireless access network in which different advanced multimedia application services (e.g., voice over IP (VoIP) content, video content, etc.) are delivered over IP.
The transmission control protocol (TCP) was originally designed for slow wired networks where no packet loss was expected. The TCP is also used to deliver a large portion of Internet protocol (IP) content over wireless access networks. Any packet loss in a TCP-based network is treated as network congestion and results in a sender (e.g., a device transmitting packets) reducing a rate at which data is sent. Furthermore, in TCP-based networks, a sender transmits packets at a faster rate if the sender detects, via TCP Acknowledgment (Ack) packets, that a receiver (e.g., a device receiving packets) is receiving packets at a faster rate. A TCP Ack packet is a packet used in the TCP to acknowledge receipt of a packet.
However, when a user device (e.g., a mobile communication device, a laptop computer, a set-top box (STB), etc.) connected to a wireless access network begins a bi-directional traffic flow (e.g., a file transfer protocol (FTP) upload or download), the user device may observe degraded throughput up to half of the original unidirectional throughput. This is due to the fact that TCP Ack packets are flowing in both directions at the same time that TCP payload packets are sent in both directions. Since the TCP payload packets and TCP Ack packets are treated with the same priority, a round trip time (RTT) for the packets almost doubles.